Karen C. Hanna is Professor and Head of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State University, a role she has filled since 2000. Starting in 1990 she served on the faculty at the University of Arkansas, and from 1994 until 2000 was the departmental chairperson of that program.

In 2001-2002, Ms. Hanna served as president of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA). During her term she hired CELA's first executive director, oversaw production of three sets of annual meeting proceedings, facilitated the transition to new editors of the Landscape Journal, initiated five online databases, prepared and delivered a presentation on the status of education to the CEO Roundtable, and represented CELA at the annual meeting of the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS).

Professor Hanna holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan (1971), a Master of Arts in Geography, with a specialty in GIS, from the University of Arkansas (1993), and is currently working toward a PhD in landscape architecture from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Professor Hanna received a Fulbright Award to teach in the Netherlands in 1998. Her work has received a national ASLA Merit Award ("Smith River Highway Visual Analysis Report", 1974), and an Arkansas Chapter ASLA Honor Award (GIS in Site Design, with Brian Culpepper, 1998). She is the author of two books: GIS in Site Design, published by John Wiley & Sons, 1998, and GIS for Landscape Architects, published by ESRI Press, 1999.

Prior to her academic career, Ms. Hanna was a practicing landscape architect and holds registrations in California (#2483) and Arkansas (#192), and is CLARB Certified (#506).